Rethinking the homeless shelter

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I’ve actually never stopped to think that having 200 people inside of a structure as not being productive. This blog post raises a good point.

Living with more than 10 people is unnatural unless you come from a very big family. Ideally, there would be no more than five people in a shared dwelling, to simulate normal living conditions. I’ve always said that learning to live with 50 or more people is no kind of preparation for independent living beyond homelessness. Any community that size takes a lot of work to remain healthy and can cause significant stress to its members if it isn’t. In fact, there should be some kind of guidebook for living in any of the bigger homeless shelters as the experience is overwhelming, stressful, and an unrealistic representation of life off the streets.

Written by Jason Gooljar

February 1st, 2010 at 10:12 pm

Posted in Poverty

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